FAQ - AD/AH Exploit Follow-Up

Got questions about how we are handling the Astral Diamonds/Auction House exploit? We will be updating this thread with the answers to the most common questions about todays downtime, and what it means for the adventurers of Neverwinter.

Q: What happened?

A: Early Sunday morning a very small group of players discovered and abused a game exploit within the Neverwinter Open Beta that affected the Auction House and Astral Diamonds.

Q: What exactly has changed?

A: We took the Neverwinter OBT down for emergency maintenance, found the bug, corrected it and tested it. In order to fix the damage this exploit caused to the in-game economy, we implemented a necessary rollback of our servers to 5:20 AM PDT the morning of May 19, 2013. This means that characters have been reverted to the state they were in at that time, pre-exploit damage. That includes items, level, experience, etc.

We know that character progress matters in Neverwinter, so as an apology for the lost time and as profound thanks for your continued support throughout this Beta, we have put together a package of items to give everyone. More information about the Caturday Survivor's Pack is available here.

Q: What about ZEN I spent/transferred after 5:20 AM PDT?

A: You'll have any and all ZEN that you transferred to Neverwinter -- we tracked all transfers during that time and made sure players have the ZEN they should have. If you spent ZEN on items during that time, you'll need to re-buy the items, but you'll have all of that ZEN. No one will lose any money they spent on Neverwinter because of this fix. If you have any issue, please see the customer and billing support contacts below.

Q: I leveled up after 5:20 AM PDT -- what happens to that progress?

A: Unfortunately, in order to properly fix this exploit, that progress has, by necessity, been lost. We know how much that progress means to all Neverwinter players, though, so we have put together a package of items to thank everyone for their support. More information about the Caturday Survivor's Pack is available here.

Q: What about the ZEN I bought/sold after 5:20 AM PDT in the Astral Diamond Exchange?

A: All ZEN exchanged during this period will be returned to the original owners.

Q: What about my astral diamonds?

A: We are currently gathering information on this and will update this question as soon as we have a complete answer to post.

Q: What about respec tokens, or other consumables?

A: You'll have everything you had at 5:20 AM PDT. If you had the consumables before 5:20 AM PDT, you'll still have them; if you bought them with ZEN or gold that you had before 5:20 AM PDT, you'll still have that gold or ZEN.

Q: I have another question, where can I get answers?

A: Post it in this thread! We'll dig through to find common questions, and we'll edit this post to include them.

Q: But... I won the Armored Nightmare from a lockbox! I'll never get that lucky again!

A: We are currently working to restore Armored Nightmare mounts that were earned legitimately during the period of time that was rolled back.

Q: I was working on a Foundry Mission during that time. What happened to my design work?

A: We did not revert any changes in the Foundry, so your work is still there.

Q: This bug existed for more than 7 hours. What are you doing about the fact that players took advantage of this before the rollback window?

A: We are performing additional log searches and investigations to ensure that the appropriate actions are taken against any accounts that performed the exploit before the rollback window. Exploits that were performed prior to our rollback window make up a fraction of a percent of total impact, so we will be dealing with those issues selectively as not to cause greater impact on those legitimate testers.

Q: Celestial Coins were lost as a result of the downtime? What will be done about this?

A: We understand that this is a concern and we are aware of the feedback. Though we may not be able to provide replacement Celestial coins, we are certainly looking into it. As we cannot guarantee replacements, we are ensuring we shortly deliver a robust thank-you pack.

Q: What happens to Founders Packs that were purchased during the rollback window?

A: No changes were made to Founders Pack purchases. You still have access to receive your items on new characters and reclaim them on existing characters as normal. If you claimed any of the singleton items from a Founder's Pack, credit for those will have been refunded and you can reclaim them after maintenance.

Q: How is crafting affected by the rollback?

As with all character data, all crafting progress during the rollback period will be reverted.

Q: Will characters created during the rollback window be completely lost?

A: Unfortunately, yes. We understand that this is a very unfortunate circumstance. As stated above, we are working on delivering a thank-you pack as a token of our apology for this.

Q: What will happen to auctions that expired during the rollback window?

A: We do not anticipate that Auction House items will be lost. All items posted on the Auction House are still there, but do not show up as the Auction House is currently offline.

Auctions will expire as intended, though they will not be sent back immediately. They will be sent back when Auction House services are re-enabled.

Q: Will you be performing a complete shard wipe to counteract the effects of the exploit?

A: We are happy to announce that we have found a way to restore the economy and resolve this issue without significantly reverting player progress. After careful consideration, we have been able to identify and act upon what we consider to be the best course of action to ensure fairness and balance of Neverwinter's in-game economy. This plan has included the rollback of game servers to 5:20AM PDT on 5/19/13 and permanent banning of accounts that participated in the exploit. We are further investigating any measures that may need to be taken, and thank you for all of your feedback and support.

Q: Can we get some clarification on what was done regarding players who had illegitimate currency, and what steps are being taken against said players?

During Sunday’s maintenance, we took action against many players who took advantage of the bug, including but not limited to enforcing permanent bans. Those who took advantage of the exploit were permanently banned, including all "mule" account that were used to transfer illegitimately obtained AD. The rollback also pulled the damage out of the AD Exchange and Auction House. Additionally, we are performing constant ongoing investigations to identify any other accounts that received Astral Diamonds or other high value items via illegitimate means, including mule and alt accounts. Those will be permanently banned, their AD and items dissolved. Finally, we have improved our internal systems to better track the movement of currency within Neverwinter, meaning that we are more enabled to respond quickly to future reports from our users regarding potential illegitimate currency. We take this matter very seriously and would like to ensure our community that we are absolutely committed to ensuring Neverwinter is a fun, fair game for all and that exploiters are dealt with in the strictest way possible. And, again, very special thanks to our community for all the amazing support and feedback.

Q: When will the Auction House and Astral Diamond Exchange become available?

The Astral Diamond Exchange is currently open, and we're working on bringing the Auction House back up as soon as possible. While we do not have an ETA of when the Auction House will be available again, we do know that it will not be before Thursday, 5/23, Pacific Time.

Q: I believe that I saw another player in-game that still has illegitimately earned currency. What does that mean?

A: We believe that we have eliminated the majority of the currency that was earned through exploits. If you encounter a player that appears to have currency gained through exploitation, please feel free to report that player to us via the in-game ticket system. Additionally, please note that other players may sometimes claim that they have illegitimately earned currency or items as a way to stir up heated discussions, so we recommend taking these claims with a grain of salt. However, we do take all reports seriously and are committed to investigating any reports of potential exploitation.

I've only recently reached level 60 and have been actively farming epic dungeons for purples, I'm somewhat dismayed and would hate to see how much of those hard earned purple geared I've lost dur to the rollback.

You do realize this exploit has been around a lot longer than like, since this morning, right? Right? ~_^ ...Right?! i mean, i'm not mad about the rollback, even though i did a ton of leveling and stuff right before the downtime. i'm even hoping this will fix the bugged arse quest i was on and put in a ticket for. i just don't know if you guys are doing enough fixing to make this worth it.

Last night around 10pm PST I did a Craft that took 18hrs. So 10pm + 18hrs is roughly 4pm PST; however if rollbacks got sent back to 5am PST then does that mean my crafting has been extended some more? I'm about to log into Game to see but I'm curious. Thanks